No More Sorrow
by MusicFiend666
Summary: Sakura is grieving Sasuke's departure, and Ino decides to cheer her up at a campfire party. Made for Vesper Chan's October Spirit contest


I have a temporary stop on my other stories, but I wrote this before that, and decided to post it and get it over with :) This is for Vesper chan's October Spirit contest. This is my first contest entry, so I hope I'm doing this right ^_^

_Disclaimer~ I own nothing! I also have no cash...so suing me is useless~ _

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_No More Sorrow_

Sakura sighed, staring out the window on a crisp October night, staring into the stars with a gloomy expression on her face. Ino glanced towards her friend before turning away, her face scrunching up in thought. Sakura had been in this funk since Sasuke had left; Ino had a crush on Sasuke too, but she knew that moping wouldn't change anything. She decided that something had to be done to cheer her pink haired friend-rival up; I mean, she had a practically tangible tenebrous aura around her! The blonde quickly came up with a plan, and excused herself from Sakura's apartment, promising to visit the next day. Sakura barely noticed, and continued to stare out the window. Nothing had been the same since Sasuke had left. Everything that had seemed so certain about the future cracked when he left, leaving gray and uncertainty in its wake. Even Naruto and Kakashi couldn't cheer up. The girl sighed and turned away from the window, before finally going to bed for another restless night.

"FOREHEAD! WAKE UP!" Sakura jolted in her bead, confused in her half-awake state, before rolling out of bed and opening her door, letting Ino, TenTen, and Hinata into the room. Sakura looked at them quizzically, still unsure of what was happening. After a rather long, awkward silence, Sakura decided to voice her question.

" Ino? Would you mind telling me what's going on?" the pink haired girl asked looking from girl to girl, crossing her arms and looking at the trio. TenTen and Hinata hadn't been around, deciding to let Sakura have her time to think.

"Well Forehead, we are taking you to a Beginning of Fall campfire party with us! Our teams are going to be there, and we figured you needed to get out of your house. So, we are blackmailing you with old childhood photos." Ino finished this with a smile and began to rifle through Sakura's clothes, flanked by an exuberant TenTen.

"S-s-sakura, we're just.. w-w-orried about you and want you t-to have some fun. A-are y-y-you mad at u-us?" Hinata's soft voice floated over to Sakura's ears, her stuttering growing more noticable as she became more flustered. Sakura looked and the girl, sighing and replied with a simple

"No, Hinata, it's fine. I'm not mad."

Later that night, after Sakura was subjected to TenTen and Ino's meddling, she was ready to leave with her friends, who she knew where just trying to cheer her up. When the four girls arrived, the boys already had the fire started and made themselves comfortable. Shino and Neji were talking quietly near Shikamaru, who seemed to be listening, but not contributing to the conversation. Chouji was sitting and watching Kiba and Lee spar. When they noticed the girls, greetings were conveyed, either with a quiet wave, or, in Lee's case, a loud yell of hello to the 'youthfull' girls. Ino and TenTen went over to talk to Chouji, while Hinata followed Sakura over to where her cousin and team-mates were conversing. Hinata joined them quickly, while Sakura sat with Shikamaru near the warm fire. For a while, they both sat in silence, watching the smoke rise from the fire, drifting into the sky until, surprisingly, Shikamaru broke the silence.

" How have you been? From what Ino says, you've been troublesome" Sakura turned to him, smiling slightly at him. Then, her eyes seemed to darken, shadows appearing in her viridian eyes. "Ino is right...I have been...troublesome, I guess" She grinned mirthlessly, before continuing. "I've been sitting in my room wallowing in a pit of my own depression, and I know its been concerning everyone, but I just...don't know what to do. I don't want to be that weak, little girl that needed everyone's help again." She turned away from him for a second, trying to regain some composure, until he turned he back.

"Listen, this is just me, but asking for help when you need it doesn't make you weak, or stupid, or anything else you're going to call yourself. Friends are there to help, so let them when they try to ok? Besides, listening to Ino whine during practice is such a drag." Shikamaru's bout of activity was fugacious, and he leaned to the side, his head against her shoulder. Sakura turned slightly, and noticed that he was fast alseep. She sighed and decided to let him sleep, even when TenTen decided to bring it to everyone's attention, and even when Kiba started teasing her. As the fire started to die out, so did the party, as Kiba and Shino started packing up all the stuff they brought, Sakura woke Shikamaru up. The two walked out of the forrest together, Sakura keeping the half-awake man from falling on his face. Before she turned him over to his team, however, she had one final thing to do.

"Thanks, Shikamaru, for your advice. I think everything will start looking up now." And with that final statement, Sakura quickly kissed the bewildered man and started off towards her house, a real, true grin on her face as she left the now wide-awake and blushing man staring after her.

_End_

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There! I actually don't even like this pairing all that much...but once I started the story, it ended with Shikamaru...go figure :D Anyways, hope you enjoyed this story. As a side note, if anyone likes Deidara/Sakura stories, go read The Claude Monet by StormDragon666. It was a modern setting story, but it was still really good and funny :) Thanks for reading!


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